Staff pick: Real Estate at the Newport

A far cry from Arcade Fire’s version of the suburbs as an oppressive prison, Real Estate’s early recordings conjured a nostalgic haze of aimless sun-bathed adolescence spent driving to the beach, to the mall, to nowhere in particular. The New Jersey combo strained out all the fear and foreboding in favor of channeling carefree pastoral bliss, and while the picture they painted was romanticized and incomplete, nobody did it better. Although last year’s “Days” made those blurred visions sharper and more immediate, the album maintained the easygoing splendor that characterizes the most deliciously vanilla band in indie rock.